India’s badminton ace Parupalli Kashyap put up a brilliant show of guts in the first round of qualifying at the Korea Open Superseries in Seoul on Tuesday that was reminiscent of the time when he was ranked as high as World No. 6. A knee injury shattered his dreams of qualifying for the Rio Olympics and the subsequent layoff has seen him sliding down to his current ranking of 107.
But his hunger remains the same as ever. The Indian star showed that in spades as he saved three match points to defeat the 815th ranked Korean Ko Gyung Bo, 15-21, 23-21, 21-19. The match lasted exactly an hour.
Also read: India at Korea Open 2016: Schedule, List of Indian players, timings in IST
Kashyap will next face Thailand's World No. 100 Pannawit Thongnuam for a place in the main draw. That match will also take place today.
This is just Kashyap’s third tournament since his comeback as he tries to make his way back to the top echelons of the game. And the way he gets going, it surely would not take him a long time.
Ko Gyung Bo starts off well against Kashyap
It, however, did take the Indian some time to figure out his spirited opponent, Ko Gyung Bo today. The 21-year-old was initially thriving, buoyed by the home support. He imposed himself very early in the opening game and pocketed it 21-15.
Kashyap began the second game on a positive note and kept his aggressive rival in check until the lemon break when he was up by 11-7. But to his dismay, Bo came storming back and levelled it 13-13.
Also read: Parupalli Kashyap vs Pannawit Thongnuam Korea Open Qualifying Round 2 Live Updates Online
As the momentum shifted sides, it was the Korean who looked unstoppable and jumped to a 20-17 lead with three match points in hand. That is where the champion in Kashyap woke up and he saved all three of them before carving out the game 23-21.
The former World No. 6 once more made a superb start to the final game and was ahead 11-9 at the mid-game interval. But post-break, the game turned out to be nail-biting as long rallies became the order of the day. The lead kept on switching sides until Kashyap was finally able to break away from 19-19 to take the win.
